Naturally, this is not to say that changes in the creative direction during a production are bad. Rather, they are absolutely necessary for a successful product, but they must be done in a controlled manner. Uncontrolled creative ideas (good or otherwise) that flow into a production without rules or management structure can be devastating. In short, an uncontrolled nuclear reaction is a bomb, but a controlled nuclear reaction powers cities.

Enter the production design document to guide project ideas in a controlled and well-understood way. Just as a blueprint aids the construction of a house, a design document shows where every element of a game fits in the larger picture.

First, before you even sit down to draft a design document, you should always ask yourself, "Who will be reading this?" If this is a document to sell your idea to a marketing staff, or to get funding, then you might focus on shorter explanations of technical subjects and move the meat and potatoes to the beginning of the document.

Also, before the actual design document drafting begins, you need to have had creative meetings and a pooling of all the best ideas, design notes, and diagrams that will make up the game play and look of the product. Don't worry if everything is not nailed down in minute detail, that will work itself out once you reach that assignment stage. Just get all of the key elements down, including your Killer-Aps. Also known as "that which will make this product stand out in game play, looks, and feel", Killer Aps are critical to the overall success of your product, and where you will spend most of your production time.

Your pre-drafting compilation should also include any conceptual art. If you don't have any, then I strongly encourage that you have some made. One of the key responsibilities a designer, producer, or manager has on a project is keeping the team focused on the vision of the game. Because the art staff on a project tends to make up almost 2/3 of the production team, visual aids such as conceptual art and storyboards, are critical to getting the art staff excited and motivated. Without these visual aids, you will probably need to keep reminding them, and sometimes yourself, what the end game will be. Believe me, it can get very hard to stay focused when a project goes over the 12-month mark.

One last item before we go through what makes up a design document: keep it readable!

Avoid using strange and unreadable fonts and sizes. Although it may look cool and give some personality to your work, in the long run, people will just get annoyed by it and might skip vital information. In sections where you really need to make the information clear, simply use bold face characters.

In the following section, you will find a breakdown of the different subjects used to outline a typical design document. Please keep in mind that you may want to add or remove subjects that are not applicable to your particular concept design. For example, if you are making a Puzzle game then the idea of a Player or Monster character may not fit into the design, however, for purposes of this article we are assuming these elements are part of the design.

The following is a list of elements that should always be on a title page for a design document:

Here are some key points I've used:

Don't get overly technical at this point. This is the section that most marketing and sales people will review, and you don't want to scare them off with technobabble. Also, don't omit how you came up with the idea and why you have picked it as your production goal. You want to bring the skeptics around to your way of thinking.

Note: One of the best flowcharting programs I have found for doing this style of work is VISIO (MS Word compatible). VISIO is available on Amazon.com by clicking here.

At this point, don't worry about the level by level game play description details, they will be covered in the Game Play Overview section covered in Part 2 of this article.

• Introduce the publisher and or developer.
• Inform the public about the copyright and trademark status of the product.
• Present a pre-rendered, pre-animated or static story that leads the player into the game.
• Give the player the lead-in options for the game, such as (Start), (Options) or (Difficulty).
• Display an ongoing status of the game while you play.
• Present the player with special reward for goals achieved.
• Explain the punishment for failing goals.

The complexity of these sections really depends on performance level of the system for which you are developing. For example, because of the memory limitations of the Game Boy you would not want to create a lengthy introduction interface. Also, if your target audience is expecting an Action game, then a lengthy lead-in interface can become very frustrating for the player.

Key things to keep in mind when designing these interface systems are:

• Production time required.
• Cost to produce.
• Need for the feature.
• Viability for the target audience and style of product.
• User friendliness.

Listed in order, the following are some of the key elements that make up your standard video game interface. Please note that I do not go into game play interface, victory, or defeat systems as they totally depend on your concept and a blanket design would not work. My best advice on these areas is to review other products that are similar to yours, making sure to note the 5 points listed above.

It is always good to review the interface requirements of a commercial system before laying out your designs for the interface.